SOC 2 Cost and Budget
How do I get SOC 2 without hiring a compliance team?
November 7, 20252 min read
Can You Get SOC 2 Without Compliance Hires?
Yes. Most startups that get SOC 2 do not have a dedicated compliance person. The work is distributed across existing team members, typically the CTO, engineering lead, and an operations person. What you need is not compliance expertise. You need documentation of what you already do.
How to Distribute Ownership
| Control Area | Who Owns It | What They Do |
|---|---|---|
| Access management | CTO or Engineering Lead | Manage IdP, run access reviews, handle onboarding/offboarding |
| Change management | Engineering Lead | Enforce PR reviews, maintain branch protection, document deployments |
| Incident response | On-call engineer | Document incident procedures, respond to and log incidents |
| Risk management | CTO | Maintain risk register, conduct annual risk assessment |
| Vendor management | Operations / Finance | Evaluate vendors, collect SOC 2 reports from sub-processors |
| Policy ownership | CTO | Approve and review policies annually |
The Workflow
- AI tool generates your policies, Connect your codebase and infrastructure, get policies that reflect your actual setup
- Assign each policy to an owner, They review for accuracy and sign off
- Each owner collects evidence for their area, Screenshots, exports, records
- CTO coordinates with the auditor, Schedules walkthroughs, submits evidence
- Team participates in audit walkthroughs, Each owner explains their controls
What Changes in Your Day-to-Day?
Very little. The most common additions:
- Quarterly access reviews, 1–2 hours per quarter
- Documenting incidents, You already respond to incidents; now write them down
- Policy review, Read your policies once a year and confirm they are current
The Minimum Team for SOC 2
You need at least two people involved to satisfy segregation of duties requirements. One person cannot both approve and implement changes. At a 5-person startup, the CEO and CTO can cover all control areas between them.
Screenata acts as your virtual compliance team, writing policies, collecting evidence, and guiding you through the audit process so your existing team spends minimal time on compliance.